Intergenerational mobility begins before birth

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Seshadri, Ananth; Zhou, Anson
• 署名单位: University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2022.03.005
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 1-20
• 关键词: Family planning; intergenerational mobility; PRAMS

摘要

Nearly 40% of births in the United States are unintended, and this phenomenon is disproportionately common among Black Americans and women with lower education. Given that being born to unprepared parents significantly affects children's outcomes, could family planning access affect intergenerational persistence of economic status? We extend the standard Becker-Tomes model by incorporating an endogenous family planning choice. In a policy counterfactual where states reduce family planning costs for the poor, intergenerational mobility improves by 0.3 standard deviations on average. We also find that differences in family planning costs account for 20% of the racial gap in upward mobility. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.